Happy Christmas… War Isn’t Over
// December 27th, 2004 // 3 Comments » // Uncategorized
Christmas is finally over! AMEN!
This year I attended 5 Christmases and finished my shopping two days after Christmas was over.
Christmas Eve, I attended a party with Meg and her family at her uncle’s (dad’s brother) house. It was very nice and intimate. Afterwards, we drove back to Addison to enjoy some chaos at Barry’s.
Christmas Day, I picked up Meg at home and we exchanged gifts (even though she already knew what two of them were – one because I told her about it already and one becuase she’s a big snoop! 
). I got her the Arrested Development and Shrek 2 DVDs, the Remember the Titans soundtrack and 2 tickets to My Way; which we are going to see at the end January with Tom and his wife Lisa.
After exchanging gifts, I drove her back out to my house. We enjoyed a nice lunch with my mom, Nonnie, and the brothers and then headed again up to the Crystal Lake area; this time to spend time with her mother’s family.
After we got up there, an argument broke out between Meg’s mom and her sister. Not exactly the best way to be introduced to the family, but things eventually cooled down and we all sat down and had a lovely dinner. Due to the arguement, Meg asked me to drive her home since she didn’t particularly want the argument between the sisters to spill over on her. We got back to her home and found out that her grandmother and uncle were both spending the night because neither of them wanted to drive back out to Addison.
With this in mind, Meg insisted that I also spend the night. We spent quite a bit of the evening with her family in the cabin discussing topics ranging from religion to the events of the night. It was all very stimulating and it made me feel like I was a part of the family (especially after I had mentioned the name of a book I was reading regading the Lost Ark).
After Meg’s parents and grandmother had gone to bed, we retired to the basement to continue the reviewing of disk one of Arrested Development. We both reclined on the floor, embracing each other and making out between episodes. Afterward, we both retired to our respective rooms for the night.
In the morning, Meg surprised me by climbing onto her brother’s bed (where I was sleeping) and kissing me. We both spent time together until her mother called us both down to breakfast. After watching some more A.D. and part of Shrek, I left for home and said goodbye to my love (whom I love more and more each day and regret the time we’re apart).
That afternoon, I went to Christmas #5, the Burke Christmas. The evening was typical of our gatherings: we all talked with each other and got caught up things. Unlike the usual visit, however, the kids were actually sociable; though I think that Uncle Bill having Cartoon Network on his cable system actually had something to do with it.
This morning I finally finished my shopping. This was intentional.
I was originally going to get both the 24 and Flintstones set that Dan wanted for Christmas before the holiday and Costco had a coupon to get $10 off on the 24 set. However, the coupon was only valid AFTER Christmas had passed. So having made a deal with Dan, I bought his second and final gift this morning.
And so it ends… well, almost. There are still a couple of gifts I need to exchange and gift cards to spend but the drama and the anxiety has passed anyway. Only 363 days left until next Christmas… grrrr.
. 
So after doing some research about the phones that Cingular had to offer, I finally decided on the Motorola V551 camera phone. The phone had basically all the features I wanted — including Bluetooth — with the exception of the PDA capabilities offered by the Smart Phone. 
